The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-15
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
a Sketch of It's History-The Leading
Spirits of the Convention.
From Tie Baltimore SUI

| from the Baltimore Sun.
! The celebration during this week of the
one hundredth anniversary of TIE signing of
the constitution of the United States of
America will lead, no doubt, to a study of
that venerable document which has endured
for a century in spite of the attacks upon it
| by its acknowledged friends and the support
given it at times by its protested enemies.
In view of the Forthcoming celebration a
short statement of the history of the signing
of the constitution may not be untimely and
may lead to its perusal by many persons
who have but faint idea of what it really
is and for what it provides.
The close of the revolutionary war and
the consequent removal of the causes that
had leagued together the thirteen American
colonies for the common good threatened
for time to defeat the very ends toward
which the history of the past ten years had
tended. In most of the newborn States the
feeling against tories led to complications
difficult TO settle; the confederacy was adj
mittedly weak; the older colonies were be-
coming powerful States and with their in
crease of power arose the tendency to be-
come independent of each other; new States
were springing up in the wilderness: the
rights of individual States and the
nation to the vast regions of the
West were in dispute, and the Con-
gress of the Confederacy presented
spectacle of body powerless to annul acts
OF State Legislatures contrary to its actions,
weakened in force by State jealousies, and
vainly struggling under the incubus of the
war cloud accumulated in bringing forth a
nation whose loosely-jointed members re-
fused to act tremendously to settle the debt.
To the failure of the impost amendment, by
which 1t was sought to aid Congress i'll the
settling of debt troubles, and the rebellion
of Shay's in Massachusetts, by which the
power of Congress was clearly shown to be
weak, were probably the two events which
decided the leaders of public opinion to seek
more perfect union. Upon the invitation
five States, namely, New York, New
Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia, met in September, 1876, at An
napolis, and, not having power to do other
wise, discussed for four days the necessity
of strengthening the government. In ac-
cordance with recommendation by this
meeting, which was approved by Congress
in February, 1887, the Constitutional Con-
vention met in Philadelphia on May II,
1857, but was not organized until May %,
and the result of the debates, lasting four
months, the constitution was created. Dele
gates were present from all the thirteen
States except Rhode Island, and among
them were Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry, Of
Massachusetts,; Roger Sherman, Oliver
Ellsworth, of Connecticut; Alexander Ham
iltOn, Robert Yates, of New York; William
Livingston, William Peterson, of New Jer-
sey; George Read, Richard Barrett, of Della
ware; Ben Franklin, Robert Morris Gouver-
neur Morris, Thomas Miffiin, of Pennsylva-
mia; James McHenry, Daniel Carroll, Luz
Their Martin, of Maryland; James Madison,
Edmund Randolph, George Mason, George
Wythe, of Virginia; John Rutledge, Charles
Pinckney, of South Carolina, Alexander
Martin Of ~
lima; John Langdon, of New Hampshire,
and Abraham Baldwin, of Georgia. The
sessions of the convention were private, and
the details of the proceedings are to be
gathered from the letters of individuals like
Yates, of New York, and Martin, of Mary
land, and the painstaking work of
Madison. George Washington, who nearly
four years before had resign
ed his commission as commander
in-chief of the American army and
had retired to private life, was again called
to the front in the service of his country and
presided over the convention The two
plans for union-the Virginia plan, pro-
posed by Randolph, and the New Jersey
plan, proposed by Patterson-were debated
for month. The latter, giving the same
power in Congress TO S nall States and large,
was rejected on June 10, and after long dis
cussion of the Virginia plan it was, with
some important notifications, and after
several compromises, made the basis of the
new Constitution. Pinckney, of South Car
DINA, and Hamilton, of New York, also
presented plans of their own. A study of
Madison's writings will give one a fair idea
of what the different plans proposed, and
the reading of the Constitution will show
the result of the debates. On Sept. II, 1887,
thirty of the delegates signed the Con-
stitution and sixteen did not. On Sept.
% Congress resolved to submit the constitu-
ton to the several States. It was ratified
by Delaware Dec. Z, 1887; Pennsylvania,
Dec. 12, 1887; New Jersey, Dec. is, 1887;
Georgia, Jan. 2, 1888; Connecticut, jan. Q,
1888; Massachusetts,, Feb G. 1888; Maryland,
April rs, 1888; South Carolina, May %,
1888; New Hampshire, June 81, 1873; Vir-
gipia, June 25, 17sS; New York, July %,
17SS; NorthEC Carolina, Nov 81, 1889, and
Rhode Island, May 80, 1870. The constitu-
ton was, by resolution of Congress, de-
clared to be ratified Sept. 49, 1888 The
document, with but fifteen amendments,
has undergone the strain of foreign and
civil war, vast accession of territory to
the country, a marvellous increase of popu-
lation and the solution of new problems
arising therefrom, and the future will prob
ably demonstrate, as has the past, that its
trainers were long-headed, sagacious, patri-
otto and far-seeing men.